Task interspersal procedures have been quite effective in increasing autistic children's motivation to learn. These procedures have typically demonstrated that the inclusion of reinforced maintenance tasks (previously learned tasks) increases responding to new acquisition tasks because more reinforc …

Assistive robots have the potential to support people with disabilities in a variety of activities of daily living, such as dressing. People who have completely lost their upper limb movement functionality may benefit from robot-assisted dressing, which involves complex deformable garment manipulati …

The research was designed to validate procedures to teach apartment upkeep skills to severely handicapped clients with various categorical disabilities. Methodological features of this research included performance comparisons between general and specific task analyses, effect of an impasse correcti …

All patients admitted to the facility during a 3-year period who required washing and dressing retraining were treated with the same protocol. The consecutive series design prevented researchers from selecting patients who they believed were good treatment candidates; therefore, the findings support …

The present study assessed the effects of gross motor activities on the self-injurious tantrums of three multihandicapped subjects. The tantrums did not seem related to specific environmental events and were rather infrequent, yet very severe. The study was carried out according to a withdrawal (ABA …

This study examined classroom-based instruction in restaurant skills for handicapped persons. Three male students were taught each of four skill components in sequential order: locating, ordering, paying, and eating and exiting. Training was implemented in a multiple baseline design across subjects …

We have created a normative functional independence profile for Chinese children by adapting the American-based WeeFIM. There were cultural differences when compared with American children. Interestingly, Chinese children in Hong Kong scored better than their American counterparts in domain 1 (self- …

In a three-phase study, antecedent conditions involving instructor's task demands and social comments were evaluated for 3 students with severe disabilities who emitted problem behavior. The results of a descriptive analysis (Phase 1) demonstrated that task demands served as antecedents for problem …

Two adolescents with severe disabilities served as participants in a study conducted to train in the use of the public telephone to call home. Participants were trained to complete a 17-step task analysis using a training package which consisted of total task presentation in conjunction with a four- …

Ratings on the acceptability, intrusiveness, restrictiveness, and efficacy of 18 commonly used interventions for decelerating behaviors were obtained from 58 special educators of students with severe handicaps. Results indicated that consensually high and low mean ratings were obtained for restricti …

This multiple baseline study investigated the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral self-management training package on the consistent use of specific classroom survival skills. Participants were three adolescent males with learning disabilities in Grades 7 and 8. The training package involved a m …

There are very few studies that describe programs to train self-feeding skills in young children who are deaf and blind. This research reports two single-case studies on the acquisition of self-feeding in children with developmental disabilities and combined visual and auditory impairments. Study 1 …

An attention-focusing procedure was designed as discrete trials and multiple prompts with contingent social reinforcement to facilitate the acquisition of conversational skills in thought-disordered schizophrenia patients. Three patients with DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophrenia completed a standard …

The preschool life skills (PLS) program (Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007; Luczynski & Hanley, 2013) involves teaching social skills as a means of decreasing and preventing problem behavior. However, achieving durable outcomes as children transition across educational settings depend …

An instructional procedure composed of a graded sequence of prompts and token reinforcement was used to train a complex chain of behaviors which included sorting, washing, and drying clothes. A multiple probe design with sequential instruction across seven major components of the laundering routine …

It has recently been suggested that lycra garments are helpful for children with cerebral palsy (CP). Twelve children, with athetosis, ataxia, and spasticity, were fitted with lycra garments (Kendall-Camp UK Ltd). Scores on the Paediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) scales were determi …

Three learning disabled children, selected on the basis of peer sociometric ratings and teacher referral, received social skills training. A group training procedure consisting of coaching, modeling, behavior rehearsal, and feedback was used to teach children the target, behaviors of eye contact and …

This study replicated a pyramidal model of parent training by peers and compared its effects with training by a professional with 26 parents of children with disabilities. A multiple probe design across 3 tiers of parents showed that both types of training produced acquisition, maintenance, and to v …

We examined the effectiveness of using dolls to teach young children with tracheostomies to self-administer a suctioning procedure. Four children between the ages of 5 and 8 years, who had had tracheostomies for 6 months or longer, participated. After skills were taught via doll-centered simulations …

In Vivo Amplified Skills Training, IVAST, functions to bridge the gap between clinic-based skills training and use of social and independent living skills in everyday life for persons with schizophrenia and other serious and persistent mental illness. IVAST utilizes a specialist case manager who pro …

This study provided six behaviorally handicapped elementary school students with a short-term resource treatment to bring their behavior under the control of a combination of treatment procedures emphasizing self-evaluation. Once acceptable levels of appropriate behavior were maintained with only mi …

Errorless acquiescence training (EAT) was developed as a graduated, success-focused, and short-term intervention for building social skills. The approach focuses on building the skill of acquiescence (i.e., teaching children to be flexible with the needs and will of peers). The authors predict that …

Play skills were taught to eight profoundly mentally retarded adults in two interrelated experiments. In Experiment 1, a multiple baseline across subjects design was used to assess the efficacy of verbal and physical prompts on independent play. In Experiment 2, the same subjects and experimental pr …

Training developmentally disabled adults in independent meal preparation. Acquisition, generalization, and maintenance

There are differences in gender, health status, functional status, and mental status among elderly persons grouped by upper- or lower-extremity dressing difficulty. Results suggest that therapists should consider such differences as gender and type of difficulty (upper- or lower-extremity dressing) …

The present study used a multiple baseline across participants design to assess whether 4 children with autism could learn a generalized repertoire of helping adults with different tasks through the use of a multicomponent teaching package. Different helping responses were taught in the presence of …

This study (1) examined whether a self-monitoring procedure taught in a laboratory setting would increase independent on-task behavior there and would generalize without further teaching to a classroom setting, and (2) analyzed the durability of the training effects over the course of 5 months for o …

Three preschool children participated in a behavioral training program to improve their gross-motor skills. Ten target behaviors were measured in the training setting to assess direct effects of the program. Generalization probes for two gross-motor behaviors, one fine-motor skill, and two social be …

In demented persons, activities of daily living skills may deteriorate more quickly than their cognitive decline warrants because caregivers do not allow them to perform ADLs to the full extent of their abilities. Caregiver actions that promote independent behaviors were used with subjects in home a …

This investigation was designed to assess a social skills training program with 32 developmentally delayed preschoolers. Subjects were evaluated in an unstructured play session, matched for levels of appropriate and inappropriate social behaviors, and assigned to either a treatment or control condit …